Feeding adaptations in new world primates: An evolutionary perspective: Introduction

✍ Scribed by Paul A. Garber; Warren G. Kinzey

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 276 KB
• Volume: 88
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-9483
• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.1330880402

✦ Synopsis

Research conducted over the past decade has dramatically increased our knowledge of the evolutionary biology, behavior, and ecology of New World primates. Extensive field data have been collected for species from virtually all of the 16 extant genera. During this same period, the discovery of a large number of platyrrhine fossils from the Oligocene of Argentina and Bolivia, and the Miocene of Colombia, has led to a major reevaluation of the evolution and systematics of this primate group (Fleagle and Rosenberger, 1990). These specimens provide a more complete sequence from which to identify phylogenetic relationships between fossil and living forms. There is now serious doubt concerning the simple and longstanding dichotomy of New World primates into "clawed and "nonclawed taxa, and researchers have constructed a new framework for assessing the adaptive trends which characterize this important primate radiation.

The papers presented in this issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology were originally presented on April 7, 1989, at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in San Diego, California. The purpose of the symposium was to examine in detail the evolution of feeding adapations in each of the four subfamilies of living New World primates-Callitrichinae, Cebinae, Pitheciinae, and Atelinae. Within each paper, special attention is given to relationships between body size, diet, dental morphology, locomotor anatomy, and foraging behavior. Comparisons are made between extinct and extant taxa, as well as interspecific comparisons within subfamilies. These provide a basis for understanding the origin and function of dietary adaptations in Platyrrhini.